What issue are religiously unaffiliated voters more focused on than the population in general and even more than evangelical voters? Abortion. In 2011, 18 percent of the religiously unaffiliated (I’m just going to say Nones) said abortion was an important issue. Last year that number was 44 percent. In contrast, 47 percent of white evangelical protestants thought it was a critical issue in 2011, and that had dropped to 39 percent last year. The national average grew slowly but steadily from 30 to 36 percent over that period.
Of course it makes some sense that the concern among evangelicals would drop nine points the year Roe v. Wade was overturned. They won their decades-long battle, and some of them turned to other issues. Attacking trans kids for example.
There are other surveys showing that abortion is at the top of the list for many Nones when asked what is the most important issue for them. This can be an issue that galvanizes the secular community into an even more active voting block than it already is and one that politicians pay more attention to. (As we mentioned in our letter to Donald Trump this week, secular turnout is high.)
Quoting from this article, “The distinction between people who are just unaffiliated and people who identify as secular is important, because people who are secular are united by a common definition, rather than by the absence of one... ‘It’s very hard to organize a group that’s defined by what it’s not,’” said David Campbell of Notre Dame.
Abortion is a state issue for the foreseeable future. What can be done? Get active in state elections. Obviously legislators are up for reelection regularly. Judges are just as important. They are elected in 22 states. Take Wisconsin, where there had been a 4-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court for years. In the election for an open seat this spring one candidate made her views on abortion rights and gerrymandering clear and she won by 11 points. It’s now almost certain that the Court will strike down Wisconsin’s 173-year-old law banning abortion, and gerrymandered districts are going to be reexamined by the Court.
State courts can have significant and final influence over state law. When state courts ground their decisions in state law, in most cases they have the last word on the topic and the U.S. Supreme Court can’t or won’t weigh in. All the more reason for secular voters to pay attention to state elections now.
But those elections aren’t happening this week. The House is about to take up the annual Defense Authorization Bill which basically tells the Pentagon what to do next year. Congressmen Huffman and Raskin are offering two amendments with the goal of establishing secular chaplains in the services to meet the needs of secular service members. These are modest, low profile amendments that should not need a vote. Instead of asking everyone here to use an action alert to contact their legislators, I’m just talking to a few key people to help get the amendments into the Manager’s Package of noncontroversial items. Sometimes less is more in the legislative process.
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